| Going off
to Japan
by myself was a very big step for me. I'd never lived on my own before,
and here I was, flying halfway around the world! It was probably the
craziest thing I've ever done. It was also probably one of the best things
I've ever done, too. I've since discovered my passion for teaching
English, and it thrills me to know that I've found a job that doesn't feel
like one. Sure, there's a lot of preparation time, many hours spent
creating a syllabus, making lesson plans, putting together resources,
choosing textbooks. However, once I get into the classroom, all that
doesn't matter.
I spent a year teaching in Japan, and it was a wonderful experience.
Before I left, I took a short "crash-course" in teaching overseas and how
to find a job in other countries. It seemed enough at the time. My first
class was an intermediate private class with two sisters who were in
elementary school. I was incredibly nervous, but once I jumped in,
everything worked well. They were a lot of fun, and the class went very
smoothly. I went on to teach classes of all ages (from a preschool class
to adults) and levels (absolute beginners/literacy to near-fluency). I
don't think I really have a favourite age or level, but each has its own
positive and negative aspects.
My classes were primarily focussed on conversation, listening and
speaking. The main textbooks used at my school were the
Side By Side
series. The first book in the series is useful for very low-level
students. There's a lot of exercises using grammar forms, and relatively
useful vocabulary. We also used New Interchange, New Person to Person, and
a host of secondary texts. Teachers at my school were given free reign
over what outside materials were brought into class. A popular book with
my adult intermediate and advanced classes was
Chicken Soup For the Soul!
I'm now working at a private school in Ottawa, where I have several
great students from a number of different countries. I'm pretty free to
use whatever resources/ideas I have, and I have spent a lot of time
creating resources for my classroom, particularly for my new Creative
Writing class. I have posted a few of my own ideas for
QUICK ACTIVITIES that I have used in my classroom.
Below is a list of ESL resources available online. Some of these links
I found myself, and some were found by members of my TESL class. (Thanks
to Diane Gauvin for the list of idiom sites!) There's lots of resources on
the Internet for English teachers, and this list is constantly changing
and growing. If any of these links don't work, or if you've found one that
you think I should add, please
e-mail me. |
TESL 
